How Old Is That?

[Quinoa]

Not sure I have many pictures of them , I may have one tombstone shaped a surveyor I know took back to his office that had survey carvings on it. He told me they liked using those tombstone shapes, haha. Well fair enough, one Egyptian meaning for the tombstone was "boundary" as well as an information stone , so the surveyors are re-using them in a correct manner anyways.

Effort in my ancient mining theories? What do you think? Why do you think I would have purchased a hard rock claim for 8K a couple years ago that had "spanish/ancient" markers on it in a place away from where the audit was supposed to be? I put my money where my mouth is and was betting on figuring out the markers and finding the covered one there. It's a long drive to it from where I live, last year there were area closures due to fires, didn't get up there at all. It gets totally snowed in from about Oct 1- June 1, and there's always a bunch of blow downs across the 2 track that goes to it you have to chainsaw out.

Kind of a pain just trying to do something legal as far treasure goes. So I've only spend a couple days up there taking photos and running a detector since when I first bought it. I'll likely find it this year, I figured out where it should be located based on finding a couple hidden mines last year somewhere else on non claimable land. I figured out what to look for on the mines now. In the mean time, I'll keep marking caches where surveyors haven't been that have some of that "survey marker" stuff around them, and "st. elmo's fire" blazing out.

 

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[sdcfia]

Well, good luck with what you're doing. I know what you mean about tough access due to weather. I remember getting 6" of snow on July 4th weekend up in SW Colorado when I was working in a mine up there. Winters, of course, were long and confining. That's why I moved to SW New Mexico - life is easier here.

 

[Quinoa]

Thankyou for that, Steve. I'll will give an update later in the summer on what's going with that one if you shoot me a reminder. It's all legal for the most part. There were some cache markers there as well, but they had a line over to the mine spot I'll be looking at and digging out. Caches are illegal on mining claims as well, "no loose ore or bullion". Hard to get rich legally.
Here was the 2 track into it in 2016, it will be worse this year, I'll probably just back pack my gear into it, only a half mile in or so from a gravel road. Many of those trees are too big for me to safely cut out, let alone move out of the way afterwards.

 

[sdcfia]

Thankyou for that, Steve. I'll will give an update later in the summer on what's going with that one if you shoot me a reminder. It's all legal for the most part. There were some cache markers there as well, but they had a line over to the mine spot I'll be looking at and digging out. Caches are illegal on mining claims as well, "no loose ore or bullion". Hard to get rich legally.
Here was the 2 track into it in 2016, it will be worse this year, I'll probably just back pack my gear into it, only a half mile in or so from a gravel road. Many of those trees are too big for me to safely cut out, let alone move out of the way afterwards.

It's a challenging situation on several levels. From your post, I assume your mining claim lies on public land, as opposed to being a patented claim (ie deeded property). That being the case, your target being "not in place ore", allows you only one "legal" recovery option - filing a treasure trove claim on top of the mining claim. I personally would not pursue that route.

It depends on how much effort you intend to put into the work on your claim whether or not to deal with the two-track. The amount of work needed for your recovery efforts are likely to be far greater than what you're anticipating - it always seems to be that way. If you can only manage a couple weeks a year to work on this, I guess a half-mile walk in and out every day is manageable as long as your gear is portable. Clearing that two-track would be nice, but could burn up an entire season. Tough decision. Oh well, keeping it obstructed will certainly discourage strangers on ATVs from exploring it.

The time restraints and remoteness of your site reminds me of another TNet poster's dilemma from a few years ago: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/treasure-legends/455143-lost-carson-mine.html

 

[sdcfia]

Here's another example of an old wooden mining corner post. Looking at its condition may be instructive to those of you who like to estimate the age of artifacts you find in your searches. This was originally a five-foot long pine 4x4 post, buried halfway in the ground in 1884 amid a mound of stones at 7200 feet elevation in a pine-oak forested area that receives about 20 inches of precipitation annually. Only about two feet survived and it was heavily dry-rotted after being in the elements the past 134 years.

 

[Quinoa]

I don't know if I want to show things that are too close to home base. I can maybe show some stuff up by my claim, will get up there in a couple months. Eh, maybe I can show something kinda interesting.
A little spot I found following markers below what I would call an ancient mining site in some very steep and rough back country last year. Looks like a turtle or fish/whale and mouth my buddies sticking his head into. I pulled one possible plug, and this was what was left. Not sure if it's real plug or not. Kind of an overcut in the top right corner of it where the block is cut past a right angle . Should be interesting, kind of gets yur blood flowing a bit, I'll visit it this summer. There's other markers nearby , and it's pegged on bearings from other further away ones. There's an A frame or pyramid rock out in front the the outcrop. Probably won't show much more on it. Tough spot to pull, but I have ideas how to get that brick out. Probably empty anyways, right?
View attachment 1591224

Oh one more addition, an obelisk and maybe set of owl ears on the ridgeline above the suspected mining site that was way up the ridge. I hiked half the day getting up near it, not showing any others pictures right now. I had to rest 2 days after coming down and out of there. I'm not 20 any more. Pretty cool stuff I guess if you are into it.

 

[Quinoa]

Oh, can you see the U shape at the base of the obelisk half way up and how it was "set" to never move. Not quite natural.

edit : "Tongue and groove" I guess you could call it. Should be pretty easy to see. I could circle it if you don't see it right away. It's on the left side of the obelisk.

So how old would that be? Tongue and groove stacked rocks/obelisks are not going to be looked at as very natural when people start asking too many questions.

 

[sdcfia]

Came across an old unpatented mining claim corner yesterday. Nothing remarkable about it except this artifact screwed very tightly into the ground next to the mound of stones. Sure, it's not all that old (maybe a hundred years), but an interesting find.

 

[Quinoa]

Broken auger for probing/ taking soil samples? We used them a little for testing spots for placer, it will pull the deeper soil up to the top.

 

[sdcfia]

41 years ago, I happened across a beautiful arched tunnel in a very remote place. That same day I also found a Brunton Pocket Transit that somebody forgot and left sitting on a stump near the mine portal - I've been using it ever since. Today I finally relocated the site. The tunnel was originally dug about 120 years ago using no shoring or timbering.


Hard to find this spot. Now I have GPS coordinates.


Nice arched tunnel, 200 feet long.


Good tight ground, no support needed.


Me and my Brunton and the stump I found it on 41 years ago.

Edit: found out this afternoon from an oldtimer that the tunnel was put in by Gaelic-speaking Cornish miners ca 1860-1880.

 

[cyzak]

I have to ask what were they looking for with this mine.

 

[sdcfia]

I have to ask what were they looking for with this mine.

They were trying to intercept a vertical precious metals vein being worked higher up on the mountain. They never found it. All that work for nothing - hand steel and black powder.

 

[Quinoa]

Very cool sdfcia,
Old Dog once showed a spanish mine they found and dug up and it looked a lot like that underground, although there were old footprints and torch holders along the sides of the tunnel. There are many old spanish mines that were dug up later, either found or they naturally opened up from a landslide. I read of one huge silver mine that opened itself up from a landslide, and someone found it and blew it back up to cover and later came back and mined it commercially for many years.

Also of interest for those searching for these type things, note the small gully wash in front of the mine. When they are backfilled sometimes the gully wash is still there/visible.

 

[sdcfia]

Very cool sdfcia,
Old Dog once showed a spanish mine they found and dug up and it looked a lot like that underground, although there were old footprints and torch holders along the sides of the tunnel. There are many old spanish mines that were dug up later, either found or they naturally opened up from a landslide. I read of one huge silver mine that opened itself up from a landslide, and someone found it and blew it back up to cover and later came back and mined it commercially for many years.

Also of interest for those searching for these type things, note the small gully wash in front of the mine. When they are backfilled sometimes the gully wash is still there/visible. View attachment 1762111

Yeah, I've found many of those. You have to remember, there was a big push in the 1980s to fill in/back fill old mine shafts/adits for safety reasons. Many times, the backfill gradually washes away at the top. The problem is trying to figure whether the site was covered by modern remediation or earlier to hide the place. If to hide the site, it could have been by early whites, Mexicans, Spanish or Apaches. If it was Apaches, chances are there will never be clues to find. Here's a few examples:

 

[Quinoa]

Yeah, they will still backfill them for safety reasons if they are aware of them.

This one wasn't a previous mapped audit, you can get a google earth overlay to show old mines and audits. There was one in the area I found about 30 years ago, and it is on those maps. The canyon the pictured one is in was normally choked full of poison ivy (there would normally be 6- 8 foot stalks in the mine wash gully completely covering everything up) but it happened to have a fire burn it out all out recently.

I was driving by the area messing around and happened to see some boulder markers along a trail that goes up the creek bottom and followed them all out (most would just point, a couple just "look" being an image of something, but the first marker I saw was a turtle arrangement) and found the mine within about 45 minutes up the canyon. It ended up being just inside a chunk of private property. I may contact the owner at some point, however further along the trail that runs the creek bottom, I found two more markers sets to follow out which I might do here this year yet, they would be in blm, possibly claimable. But the main mine of the canyon that any Spanish or ancient type group is the one in the picture.

When you are walking the foot trail going up the creek, there is a huge un-missable natural looking "X" on an outcrop next to the trail , then some pointer boulders after about another 200 feet also right by the trail. There is another large "natural " "X" when you are the walking down the trail just before you come to the same boulder markers that point up the hill to the mine. So the markers that point are all between the X 's along the trail. This one is the real deal.

 

[sdcfia]

Here's one we found way back in the hills on BLM land last week. Since there are no claims filed on it within the last year, it must be some sort of stealth operation. They've cleared the adit of about a 6'-deep backfill plug and are now working to clear a slough-off about 100' back in the drift. There's still steel track inside too. I left one of our cards with my name and email cut off - ought to sweat them a bit, ha ha. Good luck to them - I hope they find something worthwhile.

 

[Quinoa]

Yeah, sometimes the trench can be pretty subtle if they cover it right. I'm still not certain on the the claim I have, but there are spots that look like an old trench. Going to take a lot of work to satisfy my predisposed thinking.

On another note, here's a neat monument that got me started in my area many years ago, it's likely going to be blown up from a road cut if it hasn't already been in the last couple days. I spent some time on it ( a few years), even had an aura, found where to dig, but it's too late now.
Eh, I have other places to focus on. Makes me sick though. View attachment 1764569 View attachment 1764570 These places go away with progress.

 

[sdcfia]

Yeah, sometimes the trench can be pretty subtle if they cover it right. I'm still not certain on the the claim I have, but there are spots that look like an old trench. Going to take a lot of work to satisfy my predisposed thinking.

Keep in mind that shallow trenching was/is a very common prospecting technique. They would follow a near-surface mineralized vein laterally, checking on its depth as they went, until it played out - sometimes ending quickly, sometimes running a couple hundred feet. The trenches are usually only a few - maybe several - feet deep at most. After time, the trenches begin to fill in on their own with side sloughing, water erosion and accumulation of blow sand.

 

[Quinoa]

Yes. The trenches I'm speaking of are right at the mine entrances though. Depending where there are at on the slope can make it so they fill in somewhat with erosion eventually. But it's something to look for and be aware of. Especially if you have all these kooky boulder markers I talk about right around it. Kinda defies coincidence at some point.

 

[sdcfia]

Yes. The trenches I'm speaking of are right at the mine entrances though. Depending where there are at on the slope can make it so they fill in somewhat with erosion eventually. But it's something to look for and be aware of. Especially if you have all these kooky boulder markers I talk about right around it. Kinda defies coincidence at some point.

Sounds like a remediation site to me. The reason I say this is because if someone were concealing a working mine, they would not only seal off the adit, but would also remove all other evidence that would lead to it. Why leave a trench leading directly yo the opening?